Calgary YWCA
The Calgary YWCA is a Municipal and Provincial Historic Resource. Its heritage value derives from its architectural character and its decades-long connection to the YWCA, and associations to the organization’s key personnel, activities, and community services. The building was designed and purpose-built for the YWCA, serving the organization from its opening in 1911 until 1971. As heritage conservation architects to Lemay + Toker, EVOQ provided a comprehensive conservation plan tailored to the Historic YWCA. This included background research, documentation, condition assessment, and recommendations for restoration. EVOQ completed the Contract Documents for the heritage building envelope restoration including brick and stone restoration, remediation of concrete foundations, roof and chimney restoration, window rehabilitation and replacement, new flashing, and three storey front porch with excavated basement. The interiors of the heritage building were adapted for office space and code upgrades.
Rehabilitation of Historic YWCA contributes to the life cycle stewardship of the building through regular and scheduled maintenance. The long-term conservation of Historic YWCA is interrelated with the development of a predictable maintenance plan that helps future stewards in ensuring the building’s heritage attributes are conserved. The performance of the original wood windows was improved with the addition of operable storm windows and weather-stripping. Testing demonstrated that their performance met that of modern windows.
